Member of 'Little Rock 9' who integrated Arkansas school visits Shreveport

A civil rights icon of the 1950s spoke in Shreveport on Tuesday, on the cusp of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Elizabeth Eckford was at age 15 one of the "Little Rock Nine" who faced an angry mob in an attempt to desegregate the Little Rock, Arkansas, schools in 1957.

Now out with a book about her experience, she spoke to Bossier and Caddo parish school children Tuesday morning and to the Shreveport Rotary Club over the lunch hour.

Her tale was harrowing even as told more than 61 years later.

"They said awful things to me," Eckford recalled during her Rotary club remarks, including: "Lynch her! Lynch her!"

She remembered seeing in the crowd a white woman with a kind face. When Eckford approached her, she recalled, the woman spat on her.

"I was terrified," she said.

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The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1954, in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that segregated schools were unconstitutional. The Little Rock school board later approved a plan for gradual integration.

That led Eckford and the other members of the Little Rock Nine on Sept. 4, 1957, to the doors of Central High School.

Eckford said 17 students initially were chosen to integrate Central High. But that August, the school district released their names and newspapers published them. "Economic retaliation" against their families followed, she said, and eight of the children pulled out.

For Sept. 4, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the state national guard to the school to prevent the children from entering. A crowd also assembled.

The nine black students had planned to meet and go to the school together. But Eckford's family didn't have a phone and wasn't told when, the night before, the meeting place was changed. So she went to the school that morning alone.

Tuesday, she told about approaching first to one door, then another, only to be turned away by armed guardsman. 

She then had to find an escape route — not easy with a crowd of angry people shouting and blocking her exit.

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"Our being there was a direct affront to white supremacy," said Eckford, now 77. "Nobody has ever been prosecuted for anything they did."

She found her way to a bus stop, where she was protected with help from news reporters and others, she said. She was glad to have sunglasses, she said, to hide her tears.

The Little Rock Nine did not attend school that day. Only on Sept. 23, after President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops, did they enter Central High. Even then, the situation remained tense.

Eckford said the school received frequent bomb threats, and the school district hired people to check lockers every night for bombs. Only one was found, she said. Fortunately, it had a faulty fuse.

She attended Central High only one year. The next year, the Little Rock School District closed all schools rather than continue with integration. Eckford said some school staff members were fired for expressing sympathy for black students.

Eckford's book is "The Worst First Day: Bullied While Desegregating Central High," written with Eurydice Stanley and her daughter, Grace Stanley. The book is geared for younger readers.

As an adult, Eckford earned a bachelor's degree in history, served in the Army and worked as a probation officer, among other jobs.

Thanks to her experience at Central High, she earned a spot in civil rights history. She is a recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal, conferred by President Bill Clinton, and has appeared on a postage stamp.

She spoke to school children at the Bossier Parish Community College. She spoke to the Rotary Club at the Shreveport Convention Center.